Poundstone said, like many Americans, she's trying to understand what happened to allow the collapse of the economy. She said she doesn't know much about economics, but it was "not an accident" and there are "very few clean hands in it."

She also closely follows the Republican presidential candidates that "so blankets everything." Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Co. are frequent targets on her entertaining Twitter account.

"I feel even if I every so often say something that, I don't know, that insults one of them, they deserve it for being so present. They are everywhere," she said.

She also is bothered by the amount of money spent on political campaigns.

"We don't own our democracy anymore. The rich people own it," she said.

Poundstone, who will perform at 7:30 p.m. April 7 at the Kalamazoo State Theatre, said although she hates computers -- her son is "addicted" to them -- she thrives on Twitter, where she has almost 60,000 followers. She was named as one of "27 Unconventional People to Follow on Twitter" last spring (alongside, among others, a New York Times writer, a former drug addict turned counselor, an Australian clinical psychologist and a "part-time porn star").

Initially, she said it's the most "egocentric and stupid thing I've seen. I still think so, but I like it." She tries out jokes and enjoys the exchanges with her followers.

Poundstone hasn't offended anyone yet, but "the possibility is always on the horizon."

"I have no mean thoughts in my head, but there is the thing of it being taken the wrong way. I'm not the greatest writer," she said.

But she is an avid reader and staunch supporter of libraries, as a national spokesperson for The Association of Library Trustees Advocates Friends & Foundations.

"It's not hard to support," she said. "I have yet to cross a picket line and if I did, let's face it, the posters would be spelled wrong."

Poundstone was born in 1959 and grew up in Sudbury, Mass. She started
her standup career in 1979 and moved to Los Angeles in 1990. She's
appeared on HBO and "Saturday Night Live" and won numerous awards,
including an Emmy for her work on PBS' "Life & Times." Poundstone began fostering children in the early '90s, and has three children of her own, Toshia, Allison and her youngest, Thomas E.

Poundstone said she's always been active in her children's education, including volunteering to read in their classes. In her standup, she pokes fun at some of the cuts made in schools. One area of improvement she's seen since she was in school is identifying the learning needs of each student. For example, her son has ADD.

"They didn't invent ADD when I was a kid. We were just assholes," Poundstone said.

She spent many afternoons sitting in the school hallway counting ceiling tiles with other trouble makers, she said.

"I made some really good friends in that hallway," she joked.

On a serious side, Poundstone said her biggest parenting tip is to read to your children.

"The reading aloud thing, it's the best," she said. "My son is in eighth grade and last night, unfortunately, we got to bed later than I intended to ... like 10:45," she said.

They were reading "A Tale of Two Cities."

"It's really the best time of my day and always has been," Poundstone said.

Currently, Poundstone is working on a new book, touring the country and appearing regularly as a guest on "Wait, Wait ... Don't Tell Me," which she has done for a decade. When she was approached about a decade ago to do the show, she hadn't heard of it, but her nanny loved it and encouraged her to take the gig, Poundstone said. She said the program is as much fun as it sounds. There are no egos and it's "a blast to do." It's also lets her flex her improv muscles in a different environment.

"I'm not in charge. With standup comedy, for better or worse, everything is my fault," she said.

She's notoriously on the wrong side of win-lose column, something she tries to address often. For the record, Poundstone is trying to win and she does research for the show.

"Clearly not enough. I have such a tremendous losing streak," she said.

As for the Kalamazoo performance -- she was last here in 2001 -- Poundstone said one of her favorite parts of her show is asking members of the audience what they do for a living. A series of biographies emerge and she gets a glimpse of that community.